Aurel Stein: a mentor for modern Central Asia

Abstract

Brigadier Barney White‐Spunner has had a life‐long interest in the work of Sir Aurel Stein and, in 1993, he retraced Stein's first Central Asian journey along the edge of the Taklamakan Desert. In 2001, a regular soldier, he ran Kabul as commander of the Coalition Forces who entered the city after the fall of the Taliban regime and was able to restore Stein's grave which had been damaged in the fighting.

This article is based on a lecture delivered to the Society on Wednesday 22 October 2003.

Plate 1: Sir Aurel Stein (Courtesy of John Murray Publishers)

Plate 2: Aurel Stein (centre back) and friends in Kashmir (Courtesy of John Murray Publishers)

Notes

Unidentified newspaper article (1942), quoted in Walker (1995, p. 2).

Mirsky (1977) and Walker (1995). Editor: See new publications by Wang (2002) and Whitfield (2004).

See note 1.

Quoted in Hopkirk (1982, p. 68). Lattimore, himself an eminent Central Asia scholar, was a candidate to accompany Stein on his later journeys. Editor: See also Lattimore (1940) and (1973).

Elphinstone was the British Military Commander whose policies led to the tragic British evacuation of Kabul in January 1842, which is commemorated in the famous painting by Lady Butler of the sole survivor at Jallalabad. Nearly 16,000 British and Indian soldiers and their families were lost in the passes east of Kabul.